“My Dead Friend Zoe” (2024) is an autofiction expansion of director, cowriter and US Army veteran Kyle Hausmann-Stokes’ short film “Merit x Zoe” (2022) in his feature film debut. Afghanistan army vet Merit Charles (Sonequa Martin-Green) is going to court mandated group therapy in Portland, Oregon, but has problems engaging with anyone, required or not, because her friend, Zoe (Natalie Morales), whom Merit served with, jabbers in her ear. The catch is that Zoe is dead. When her Mom, Kris (Gloria Reuben), asks her to check on her grandfather, Dale (Ed Harris), a Vietnam-era Army vet, and prepare his transition to a retirement community, she realizes that she cannot run away from her problems and starts to reengage with people. Will she find a way to talk about what happened to Zoe and face the past?
Even tropes cannot derail “My Dead Friend Zoe,” an earnest, gorgeous and well-acted character study. The stunning Martin-Green is a strong anchor, and all her years of playing memorable television characters like Sasha Williams in “The Walking Dead” or Michael Burnham in “Star Trek: Discovery” pay off on the big screen. As Merit, she balances the credibility of a woman comfortable in her skin and skills while simultaneously finding it challenging to live in the present without disassociating and reflecting on the past or giving in to her delusions. Editor Ali Greer and the sound department do a perfect job of structuring the clips and the audio to put the movie goers in Merit’s shoes. She makes every scene work in the rare occasion that she has a weaker acting partner, which is rare but happens. When she is onscreen with heavy-hitting acting legends, she more than holds her own so if life is fair, one day, she will be recognized as one of the greats too.
Morales technically is playing two characters: the real Zoe who appears in flashbacks mostly set in Afghanistan from 2016 and the Zoe spectre. The friendship is the film’s foundation, and the chemistry must work so when delusional Zoe gradually ramps up her interruptions and becomes what Morales describes as a “guilt demon,” she still must be appealing. In the short film, the friendship seems platonic, but in the film, it seems sororal though at times a queer attraction seems possible. Morales may have the harder job because she balances humor that is engaging and deflecting with a mean streak. As Hausmann-Stokes reveals Zoe’s story, there are genuine surprises, and “My Dead Friend Zoe” does so in a way that is understated compared to the more melodramatic “Cash for Gold” (2024). Hausmann-Stokes also has that movie beat in terms of majestic visuals and uses notes of horror visual vocabulary to underscore Zoe’s presence and Merit’s deteriorating mental health.
Morgan Freeman seems to be running on automatic as Dr. Cole, the Vietnam era veteran. Freeman’s phoning it in is better than the average actor’s best day. He delivers an aphorism with a story and is one of the tropiest aspects of the story. Fortunately, his role is not essential to the plot except at the bookends unlike the short film. “Merit x Zoe” is most of the first act of “My Dead Friend Zoe.” The fellow group members appear in the short film and are actual vets, so they bring a sincerity that bolsters Freeman’s iconic voice. Also considering how well-known it is that Freeman tends to salivate over attractive women in his vicinity, light a candle for Martin-Green and hope that she emerged unscathed.
Other tropes are breakthroughs at group therapy and a love interest storyhidden within the retirement home plot. Alex (Utkarsh Ambudkar) is the wrong kind of comedic relief, the person who is always performing and needs pity laughs. It also does not help that his family owns the retirement community, which in “My Dead Friend Zoe” symbolizes that he is a caring man, but in the real world, screams vultures who are better at taking money than using it to care for people. Merit deserves so much better, but Martin-Green sells it as if Alex is real catch, not that she is out of his league.
“My Dead Friend Zoe” has two secret weapons: Harris and Molalla, the town where grandpa lives. When Merit talks about her service, she focuses on her memories of her grandpa and the Fourth of July ceremony in Molalla so comparing her mental image to the reality is a stark contrast. He is at the beginning of an inevitable decline, which amplifies his anger along with him remembering that Merit was not there when Angela, his wife and her grandmother, died. Initially he treats her as if they were back in the Army, and she respects and strives to find a way to get him to warm up to her again instead of resist the current. Harris is so good that it is easy to forget that he only plays vets in movies such as “The Last Full Measure” (2020) or that Martin-Green is not his granddaughter. As they open to each other as family and fellow veterans, this movie soars, especially as the majestic surroundings match the transcendent bond between the two. Their story is predictable and heartwarming, and it still works. When the tropes are golden oldies, it feels like a classic.
“My Dead Friend Zoe” should come with the warning, “Do not try this at home.” Being a caretaker is not as easy as it appears in the movies. There are no good choices, but one person cannot do it alone forever. A solution to grief is not giving more of yourself to someone but finding a balance and carving out a life of one’s own. People deserve to have their own lives and not let their survivor’s guilt exploit them into becoming a giving tree to anyone who needs them regardless of how much they love that person. The narrative is a shell game, and Merit may not have learned the lesson that she needed from Zoe’s haunting. There is a great unintentional visual metaphor as Kris stands with her dad, who hands a bag of bread to feed the ducks then leaves in disappointment for perceived betrayal, which Kris then perpetuates in her conversation with Merit, who is left holding the bag, literally and figuratively. The subconscious truth of this quotidian, bucolic moment makes it easier to stomach. Why do two generations get off scot-free to live the lives that they want to live while Merit is the sole sacrificer as if she is the only duty bearer to the alternative, a corporate death camp?
It is not often that a feature is just as strong as or stronger than its short without feeling stuffed with filler to run the clock, but “My Dead Friend Zoe” builds on its foundation and covered more ground without many missteps. It is not a perfect movie, but it is a great start for Hausmann-Stokes, who presents as a white man. It is an interesting choice to make Merit, a Black woman, his on-screen surrogate, while Zoe is a stand in for his two platoonmates: Luis Ramirez-Jimenez (1987-2018) and Boris Ventura (1979-2015). The gender and race bending do not feel exploitive, and this story is more than entertainment or fame. As the Pr(a)etorian Burnout cuts authorized Congressional spending to the Department of Veterans Affairs, remember this movie and consider how many more veterans will die because Presidon’t would rather serve himself than the people under his command.
